In the recent week, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) has dealt three major, concerted blows to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA): (1) The Budget allocation for NREGA was reduced to just Rs 60,000 crore in 2023-24 (less than Rs 50,000 crore if we deduct wage arrears from 2022-23). This makes this year’s allocation the lowest as a proportion of GDP (0.2%) in the history of the programme. (2) The...
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Expand PDS to include non-ration card holders and 10 crore excluded by using old census figures: Right to Food Campaign
A coalition of civil society activits has criticized the Union Budget 2023-24 for reducing government spending on the social sector by a massive amount. The economic crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic was borne disproportionately by those at the bottom of the pyramid and in this context spending on social protection schemes such as the Public Distribution System, anganwadis, pensions and MGNREGA is especially important. But the Government of India has...
More »Top 1% of Indians own 40.5% percent wealth, bottom 50% has around 3% - Oxfam Inequality report
Following the pandemic, the income of the bottom 50 per cent of the population is estimated at 13 percent of national income and 3 percent of total wealth Apoorva Mahendru, Kanishk Gomes, Mayurakshi Dutta, Noopur, Pravas Ranjan Mishra Oxfam International's annual inequality report makes for stark reading. The India supplement, part of the main report, states that the top 1 percent of Indians own nearly 40.6 percent of the total wealth in...
More »MGNREGA: Central squeeze to cost 30 lakh Bengal families -Basant Kumar Mohanty
-The Telegraph No other state has ever been denied funds for such a long period under the scheme, which provides for up to 100 days of paid, unskilled work to every rural household in a year New Delhi: The Centre’s decision to stop funds to Bengal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act will have denied job opportunities to 30 lakh rural families in the state this year, a study...
More »Centre has withheld Rs 7,500 crore in MGNREGA funds to West Bengal for a year, claims report -Shagun
-Down to Earth MGNREGA workers in Bengal not paid wages of Rs 2744 crore for a year, report by Libtech India found The central government has withheld release of Rs 7,500 crore in MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) funds to West Bengal for a year now over “non-compliance of central government directives”, a report released on December 26, 2022 claimed. A whopping Rs 2,744 crore of the Rs 7,500...
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